Fugitive Mother Arrested in Mexico After Nearly 30 Years for Daughter's Murder

Anna Marlene Somoza, 60, has been arrested in Mexico by the US Marshals Service, nearly 30 years after the alleged murder of her 3-year-old daughter, Crystal Reyes. Somoza had been a fugitive for over 12 years, evading apprehension through connections to cartels, according to authorities.

Somoza is facing first-degree murder charges in the United States. Crystal Reyes was reportedly subjected to severe abuse, torture, and starvation prior to her death. Authorities stated that Reyes was confined to a dog kennel, bound by her hands and feet, gagged, and left for weeks at a time. On January 30, 1997, Reyes was allegedly bound, suffocated with a towel taped to her face, and placed in a sealed cardboard box to die.

The investigation into Crystal Reyes' death began in November 1998 when human bone fragments were discovered by a hunter in a deserted area of Arizona. It took until August 2014 for forensic DNA analysis to identify the fragments as the remains of Reyes. Detectives confirmed her identity using DNA from her biological father, which provided grounds to charge Somoza and her then-boyfriend, Avelino Tamala, with first-degree murder in December 2014.

Tamala was found guilty of Crystal's murder in 2016 and sentenced to life in prison. Somoza, however, had been deported years prior.

Somoza's criminal history predates her daughter's death. She was linked to a major transnational drug trafficking network along the southern Arizona border in the 1980s and 1990s. After a 1993 arrest for marijuana offenses, she became a confidential informant for an Arizona law enforcement agency, during which time she met Tamala, a narcotics detective, and began an "improper romantic relationship."

Somoza and Reyes began living with Tamala in Arizona shortly after Reyes' birth in Mexico in 1993. Tamala was not Reyes' father.

Stacy Vaughan, vice president of growth and prevention at Childhelp, a child abuse prevention organization, suggested that Reyes' abuse may have gone unnoticed because the child was not attending school, as reports of abuse often come from educational systems. Vaughan also noted that modern legislation in the United States, with mandated reporting laws for most adults over 18, could help prevent such cases.

In 1999, the year after Reyes' remains were found, Somoza and Tamala were arrested on drug and weapon charges. Somoza served eight years in federal prison and was deported in 2008. Following the 2014 identification of Reyes' remains, a multi-agency search for Somoza commenced.

The US Marshals Service stated that Somoza had "taken deliberate and extensive measures to evade detection." In October 2022, an arrest warrant was issued to facilitate her extradition, but her location remained unknown. The search was designated a major case in 2026, increasing resources dedicated to its resolution.

In early September of the current year, the US Marshals Service received intelligence that Somoza was evading detection in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She was apprehended on October 18 in Xochitepec, Mexico, by Mexican law enforcement.

The US Marshals Service will now work with the Mexican government for Somoza's extradition. According to former federal prosecutor Russell Lorfing, this process can take anywhere from weeks to months, or even years if Somoza challenges the charges through Mexico's legal system via an amparo, an appeal that can significantly delay extradition proceedings.